

Rainer Becker
Rainer Becker is head of unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, and currently dealing with antitrust enforcement and policy in the area of pharmaceuticals and health. Before that, he was leading the central unit in charge of coordinating the Commission’s antitrust and cartel cases and of developing competition policy in this area. Rainer previously served in different other positions within DG Competition, working in particular on the EU’s legislative initiative on private damages actions, and in operational units of the authority handling antitrust and merger matters in manufacturing and consumer goods industries. Before joining the Commission in 2004, he was a lawyer of the Brussels and Cologne bars and a senior associate in an international law firm. He advised clients across a range of industries on European and German merger control, antitrust and cross-border litigation matters. Rainer has published and spoken widely on issues of competition policy, general EU law and comparative law, and lectures at Heidelberg University. Born in 1969, he studied Law, and Spanish & French literature at German, Spanish and Canadian universities and holds Ph.D. (Trier), LL.M. (McGill) and Ass./Ref. iur. (Rh.-Pfalz) degrees in law. He is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish.
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2860 | Conferences
Articles
1380 Bulletin
510
"The White Paper on damages actions for breach of the EC antitrust rules"* I. Introduction On 2 April 2008, the European Commission adopted a White Paper on damages actions for breach of the EC antitrust rules (hereinafter ‘the White Paper’). It presents a set of recommendations to ensure that (...)
870
"Siemens/ VA Tech: A Case of Bidding Markets and Minority Stakes"* On 26 April 2006, the merger case M.3653 — Siemens/VA Tech was closed following the successful sale, after an auction process organised by Siemens, of VA Tech‘s hydro power business to Andritz, an Austrian engineering group. (...)
7082 Review
7082
Whereas in the enforcement system of Articles 81 and 82 EC resulting from Regulation No 17/62, it was usual to distinguish between the application of these texts, on the one hand, by the Commission and, on the other hand, by the national authorities and courts, which led to a preference for a (...)